So This is How Liberty Dies - With Thunderous Applause

(x-posted from my LiveJournal)

I've been on edge all day with this health care voting nonsense that's been going on in the House. I'm not going to say too much about it here (if I'd come here directly from watching it, there would have been much foul language and venom spewing. As it is, I spent some time at therightfangirl and that calmed my nerves a bit. I'm glad there are places in this universe that still make sense).

I have thought long and hard why I oppose this bill on substance. And here are a few my reasons:

1. I don't want the government telling me and my family what to do. My parents are self-employed and we have purchased our own health insurance my entire life. Only recently have we had to drop it because times are tough, but it was a risk we chose to take. We're all pretty healthy anyway and we'd rather take the chance on getting hit by a bus (or whatever craptastic sob-story the creatures in Washington are peddled to get this BS through) than go without food and clothing. But now that Princess Pelosi got her way, you could get fined for not having health insurance. What the crap? Since when does not having health insurance hurt somebody else? It's my damn money - let me do with it as I please!

2. It grows government. I'm not one of those anarchist nuts that says we should totally abolish the national government, but I am in favor of states' rights and, more importantly, individual rights. All I want the government to do is keep us safe from evil people who want to kill us. I don't want them to provide a blasted thing for me. They are not my parents (shoot, I'm old enough, I should be providing for myself). I just want them to stay the hell out of my life. Up until a few years ago, I had a very live-and-let-live attitude toward government. But when I started noticing all these creepy little things they've been doing, I'd had it and I got mad. Oh boy - you have not seen anything yet. With this health care beast passing - they are soooo in for it!

3. The few that would be insured under this is not worth the many that are going to lose their already-excellent health care plans. There are other better avenues to health insurance reform than the government regulating everything under the sun - starting with taking the trial lawyers to task for their ambulance-chasing and other shenanigans. It's called Tort Reform. Love it. Embrace it. And let insurance companies compete between states. The bad insurance companies will fail (as they should) and the good ones will flourish and provide amazing-yet-affordable health care plans. That's how capitalism REALLY works (and I know that those of you educated in public schools have been taught differently, but don't believe everything you learn in school).

4. Health care is not a right. Home ownership is not a right. Employment is not a right. Formal education is not a right (hell, Abraham Lincoln was basically homeschooled). Communist Russia tried all that. It was great at first (well, "great" - depending on who you ask), but by the end of the Soviet Union, they were pretty much holding guns to people's heads to get them to fall in line. Yep - that communism - sounds great. Where do I sign up? *end sarcasm* The rights afforded us by the Constitution are merely avenues for us to pursue happiness - they are not the ends to happiness themselves. And really, the Constitution itself doesn't actually afford us anything - those rights in the Constitution are God-given rights. But the Founders had enough foresight (or they themselves had just come out from under a bastard dictator scumbag - take your pick) to know that some dipwad would come along and try to take over unless there was something set down in stone (parchment - whatever) to stop them. And - wow - look what's happened? The government has come to the point where it assumes that it is God.

That's what it boils down to - government wants we the people to bow down to it as our deity. The politicians don't give a flaming turtle butt over health care or if people have insurance - it's all about power (there are some good congresspeople in Washington, but they are becoming increasingly rare). That's what it's been about through history - who has the power and who is going to exploit it? Until America came along and said - "No, the power goes to the little guy," it's how Rome and the Middle East and all of Europe and China ran themselves - they set up one all powerful leader and erased any kind of Higher Power - and look how that's going for them now (and how it will be going for us soon if we aren't careful).

Guess what? I have a God - and it ain't the United States Congress and it sure as hell ain't the President. And my God's power isn't going to run out at the end of a 4-year or a 6-year term. In fact, God gave these leaders their power and He's looking to see how they're going to handle it. And He gave me my power and He's looking to see how I'm handling it. Honestly, I have no control over how those individual politicians conduct themselves or the choices they make. I do have control over what I do (contrary to what Dr. Utopia, Princess Pelosi and Dingy Harry want to accomplish) and I hope I do my Heavenly Father proud (or "well-pleased," if you prefer).

I have little faith in government and, after today, I feel justified in that respect. The American people yelled out loud and clear that we don't want this mess, but they went ahead and did it anyway. In case you missed it in your 1st Grade Civics class, that's not how this works. The elected officials represent the people - not talk down to us like we're a bunch of two-year-olds. Would you talk to your boss that way? We voters are these politicians' boss - and they'd better remember that this November.

Oh, and if you want something to pick you up, go watch "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson (I DVR'd it edited). I was watching it earlier today and watching that depiction of the Revolutionary War motivated me. The lengths that people went to be out from under tyranny (and the British were tyrants - don't let the watered-down version of history fool you) were astounding and I think it's foolish to presume that we have to give anything less. Our country is falling apart - but it can be saved if we act in time. One of my mission companions said "Don't just die for the gospel - live for it." I want to apply it here - Don't just die for your country - live for it.

And friends, the time to live for it is now. Here's a place to start. And there are others. Write or call your representatives and chew their butts out (in a nice, dignified way, of course). Educate yourself. Start with history - try this book out. If you can't afford it, get it from your library. If your library doesn't have it, get it through Inter-Library Loan, which all libraries have (I'm a Library Science major - I know these things). Donate your time and money to worthy campaigns. Go to rallies. Ways to help aren't hard to find if you care to look (half the time, you don't even have to try to look). Get involved. Now.

I didn't intend this to be a call to action, but it ended up being that. And it's your choice what you do now. But I've said my peace and I'll leave it at that.